Category Archives: DNA

Dogs have loved us for thousands of years, despite humanitys many flaws and foibles. New research suggests dogs were domesticated from wolves just oncethats all it might have taken for puppers and people to form an everlasting alliance.

The study, which was published online yesterday in Nature Communications, analyzed the genomes of two ancient German doggosone 7,000 years-old and the other 4,700 years-old. The researchers compared their dog DNA data to the genome of a 4,800 year old dog from Ireland that other scientists had studied in 2016, and to modern dog genomes. In that study, published last year in Science, researchers put forth a dual origin idea that dogs were domesticated from wolves on two separate occasions, in Europe and Asia. But in this recent study, researchers wrote their ancient doggos predominantly share[d] ancestry with modern European dogs. In other words, there might have actually been a single origin, although the precise location where dogs were first domesticated is still somewhat of a mystery.

We came to the conclusion that our data consisting of prehistoric three Neolithic genomes and DNA from thousands of modern dogs from across the world supported only a single domestication event from a group of wolves somewhere in Eurasia sometime between 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, co-author Krishna Veeramah, an assistant professor of ecology and evolution at Stony Brook University, told Gizmodo. In addition, most of the dogs people keep as pets today are likely genetically the descendants of the dogs that lived amongst the first European farmers 7,000 years ago, and perhaps even as far back as 14,000 years ago when people were still practicing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Dogs were the first animal to be domesticated by humans. Anyone who owns a cat can tell you that felines were definitely domesticated long afterward. While this new study wont end the argument over how many times dogs were domesticated, it does offer a compelling, simple solution.

One the face of it you might think, why is it important that there was one, two, three or even four domestication events? Veeramah explained. But if youre trying to find out how and why it occurs, whether it was one or more is important. Humans and wolves have likely lived in the same region for maybe 40,000 years. So if the process of domestication only occurred once, this tells us it was likely very hard to do.

Humanity is constantly evolving, and has reinvented and embarrassed itself so many ways over the course of thousands of years. But in this ever-shifting nebula of chaos we call life, at least one thing remains true: the dogs are good.

[Nature]

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DNA Testing Suggests Dogs Needed No Convincing to Befriend Humans - Gizmodo

L&HH star Kirk Frost is hoping he can save his marriage with Rasheeda by waiting as long as possible to reveal his DNA results for Jasmine Washingtons baby. Get the EXCLUSIVE details here!

Is he the father?! Kirk Frost, 48, is fighting for his marriage with wife Rasheeda, 35,and is not ready to hand over his DNA results that will claim if he is or isnt the father to Jasmine Washingtons baby. Kirk is burying his head in the sand and hiding from the inevitable, a source EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife.com. Right now hes so wrapped up in trying to get Rasheeda back, the last thing he wants to do is confirm to her and the world that he had a baby by another woman. Hes putting off handing over the results as long as he can. Its not clear how long Kirk is planning on avoiding the issue but hes going to have to face it someday. It doesnt make any sense because theres no way to run from this forever, but Kirk doesnt seem to think thats the case, the source continued. Hes got this crazy idea that he can still find a way to dodge this bullet and save his marriage. Hes living in total denial but thats where his head is at. See Kirks shocking text messages during his alleged affair with Jasmine here!

Kirk married Rasheeda back in 1999 and the couple have two children together. News of his possible infidelity came as a shock to many when Jasmine filed court papers in Jan. 2017 demanding he pay child support. The paternity test was soon requested and everyones been on edge just waiting to see if Kirk really is the father of Kannon Mekhi Washington who was born in 2016. Rasheeda was understandably heartbroken when she found out about her husbands relationship with Jasmine and the possibility that the baby might be his just increases the pain. However, she has admitted on L&HH that if the baby is Kirks she would allow it to get to know her family. Now, thats selfless!

Despite Rasheedas patience with Kirk up to this point, the way things ended on the most recent finale of the show proves that it may not continue to be all sunshine and roses for the couple. The highly anticipated DNA results never happened and it leads many to speculate that Kirk and his past will continue to haunt him until it ultimately ends his bond with Rasheeda. It looks like only time will tell with this situation but we hope the answers come soon!

HollywoodLifers, what do you think about Kirk holding back on the DNA results? Tell us here!

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To Jasmine As Long As He Can: Terrified OfRasheeda's Reaction - Hollywood Life

Chronicle Staff and News Services

Photo: Frank Wiese, Associated Press

Rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in 1996.

Rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in 1996.

Dr. Phil is making lots and lots of money.

Dr. Phil is making lots and lots of money.

Saucy dealings; Madonnas DNA not for sale; Dr. Phils big money

Number of the day

$4.2 billion

Thats how much U.S. spice maker McCormick & Co. paid for the food business of Reckitt Benckiser, the maker of such items as Frenchs mustard and Franks RedHot sauce. The combined group is expected to have annual sales of around $5 billion. In an unrelated condiment development, Heinz recognized National Hot Dog Day and the reluctance of Chicagoans to put ketchup on a hot dog by offering Chicago Dog Sauce in a limited-edition bottle. It looks an awful lot like, uh, ketchup.

No, you cant buy Madonnas DNA

A New York judge has stopped an impending auction of Madonnas personal items, including a love letter from ex-boyfriend Tupac Shakur, a pair of worn panties and a hairbrush containing her hair. The Material Girl sought an emergency court order saying she was shocked at the planned online auction by Gotta Have It Collectibles, and said a former friend is behind the sale. Its outrageous and grossly offensive her DNA could be auctioned, she said.

But Dr. Phil could

have won the bidding

Speaking of wealthy entertainers, Forbes has come out with its annual list of the worlds top-earning TV personalities. Phil McGraw leads the list with $79 million, followed, in order, by Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, Gordon Ramsay and Ryan Seacrest. The earnings include income from additional activities such as producing, non-TV performances, endorsements and merchandising.

Compiled from staff and news services. See more items and links at http://www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techchronicle

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Saucy dealings; Madonna's DNA not for sale; Dr. Phil's big money - SFGate

After carefully dissecting out the muscles of a disembodied arm, biologist David Carrier and his team tied fishing lines from each isolated tendon to a guitar tuner knob, allowing the researchers to move the fingers around like ghastly marionettes. Using this setup, they could measure the varying strain on the bones when the hand was arranged in different positions and slammed into a padded dumbbell weight. Each limb took a week to prepare, but Carrier, who is head of the Evolutionary Biomechanics Lab at the University of Utah, wanted to get the study right. He had a point to provethat humankind has evolved for violence.

The 2015 paper that resulted from Carriers research showed that a buttressed fist, one with the thumb closed against the index and middle fingers, provides asafer way to hit someonewith force. Given that none of our primate cousins have the ability to make such a fist, Carrier and his co-authors propose that our hand proportions may have evolved specifically to turn our hands into more effective weapons. The research is just the latest in a string of studies Carrier has conducted to define a suite of distinguishing characteristics that are consistent with the idea that were specialized, at some level, for aggressive behavior. Through experiments with live fighters as well as with cadaver arms, he and his colleagues have reimagined our faces,hands, andupright postureas attributes that evolved to help us fight one another.

Carriers conclusions have proven contentious: Critics argue that just because a buttressed fist protects the hand during a punch doesnt mean the hand evolved that way for this specific reason any more than the human nose evolved to hold up glasses. But peoples discomfort with Carriers hypothesis goes beyond this critique. The work is sensitive because it tackles a controversial question: Are humans biologically designed for violence, or are violence and war cultural phenomena?

While many biological anthropologists have, like Carrier, arrived at the former conclusion, albeit for different reasons, cultural anthropologists tend to argue for the latter. A major take-away from the anthropological literature is that humans have thepotential, which is different from thetendency, to be violent, says Alisse Waterston, president of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), and a cultural anthropologist at the City University of New York who studies violence. But ever since the 17th-century thinker Thomas Hobbes famously described the lives of humans in their natural condition prior to the development of civil society as nasty, brutish, and short, there have been scholars such as Carrier who suggest that violence has molded our speciesthat its been etched into our bodies and minds.

Theories can encompass both biological and cultural viewpoints, of course, but in this debate, the conflict between the different perspectives has at times verged on the intensity of one of Carriers fistfights. The debate is nuanced, and it cuts right to the heart of humanitys perception of itselfas well as our collective desire for world peace.

The idea of a biological imperative for violence achieved prominence in the 1970s with the emergence of a new discipline: sociobiology. While the concept of violence being intrinsic to human nature had been around since Hobbes time, sociobiologists (and later evolutionary psychologists) specifically argued that behaviors, not just physical characteristics, can be shaped by natural selection. This meant that common behaviors like violence could be genetically determined.

The debate cuts right to the heart of humanitys perception of itselfas well as our collective desire for world peace.

At the heart of the popularization of this idea stands Napoleon Chagnon, sometimes called Americas most controversial anthropologist. Chagnon caused an uproar in 1968 when he published observations of the Yanomami people of Venezuela and Brazil, describing them as a fierce people who were in a state of chronic warfare. He asserted that Yanomami men who kill have more wives and therefore father more children: evidence of selection for violence in action. This represented a wild divergence from the anthropological consensus. Anthropologists criticized virtually every aspect of Chagnons work, from his methods to his conclusions. But for sociobiologists, this was a prime example that supported their theories.

Around the same time, David Adams, a neurophysiologist and psychologist at Wesleyan University, was inspired to investigate thebrain mechanisms underlying aggression. He spent decades studying how different parts of the brain reacted when engaged in aggression. By using electrical stimulation of specific brain regions and through creating various lesions in mammalian brains, he sought to understand the origins of different antagonistic behaviors. But Adams found the public response to his work over the top: The mass media would take [our work] and interpret it like wed found the basis for war, he says. Tired of the way his results were being interpreted by both the media and the public, Adams eventually switched gears entirely.

In 1986, Adams gathered a group of 20 scientists, including biologists, psychologists, and neuroscientists, to issue what became known as theSeville Statement on Violence. It declared, among other things, that it is scientifically incorrect to say that war or any other violent behavior is genetically programmed into our human nature. The statement, later adopted by UNESCO, an agency of the United Nations that promotes international collaboration and peace, was an effort to shake off the biological pessimism that had taken hold and make it clear that peace is a realistic goal. The press, however, was not so enthralled by Adams new tack. This is not interesting for us, one major news network responded when he asked if they would cover the Seville statement, he recalls. But when you do find the gene for war, call us back.

The Seville statement by no means ended the academic debate. Since its release, various prominent researchers have continued to advance biological arguments for our innate tendency towards violence, in contradiction of both the statement and the views of many cultural anthropologists. In 1996, Richard Wrangham, a biological anthropologist and primatologist at Harvard University, published his popular bookDemonic Males, co-authored with science writer Dale Peterson, that argued we are the dazed survivors of a continuous 5-million-year habit of lethal aggression. Central to this proposition is the idea that men, or demonic males, have been selected for violence because it confers advantages on them. Wrangham argued that murderous attacks by groups of male chimpanzees on smaller groups increased their dominance over neighboring communities, improving their access to food and female mates. Perhaps, like chimpanzees, ancestral men fought to establish dominance by killing rivals from other groups, thus securing greater reproductive success. InWranghams view, such behavior selected for males who are endowed with a certain desire for violence when the conditions are right: the experience of a victory thrill, an enjoyment of the chase, a tendency for easy dehumanization (or dechimpization).

I think the growing evidence about innate propensities for violence have shown [the Seville statement] rather clearly to be simplistic and exaggerated at best, says Wrangham.

Akey proponent of this biological view is psychologist Steven Pinker, another Harvard researcher whose writing, particularly his 2011 bookThe Better Angels of Our Nature, has significantly shaped the conversation about human violence in recent years. In his 2002 bookThe Blank Slate, Pinker wrote, When we look at human bodies and brains, we find more direct signs of design for aggression, explaining that men in particular bear the marks of an evolutionary history of violent male-male competition. Onewidely quoted estimateby Pinker places the death rate resulting from lethal violence in nonstate societies, based on archaeological evidence, at a shocking 15 percent of the population.

Physical indicators, such as those studied by Carrier, can be viewed as evidence that selection for violence-enabling features has taken place. Carrier sees signs of design for aggression everywhere on the human body: In a recent paper, co-authored with biologistChristopher CunninghamfromSwansea University,he suggests thatour foot postureis an adaptation for fighting performance. He has even proposed, as part of his fist-fighting hypothesis, that the morerobust facial featuresof men (as opposed to women) evolved to withstand a punch.

I really dont think its debatable that aggression has shaped human evolution, agrees Aaron Sell, an evolutionary psychologist at Griffith University in Australia, who has explored the combat design of human males. Sell hascompiled a listof 26 gender differences, ranging from greater upper body strength to larger sweat capacity, thatsuggest adaptation for fightingin human males. It is a very incomplete list though, he adds.

Many anthropologists remain unconvinced by those who suggest that there is an evolutionary advantage in violence and a deep biological explanation for conflict. Theyre just barking up the wrong tree, says Douglas Fry, an anthropologist who specializes in the study of war and peace at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.We are well designed to prevent ourselves getting into lethal conflicts and to avoid the actual physical confrontation, he argues, describing the idea that we are innately predisposed to violence as a cultural belief that is just plain wrong.

David Carrier is an excellent biomechanist who conducts careful and clever experiments, says Caley Orr, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Hes probably right when he talks about the biomechanicalconsequencesof some of the anatomy, but that is different from resolving what the evolutionary selective pressures were that shaped it in the first place.

Polly Wiessner, an Arizona State University anthropologist whostudies warfare and peacemakingin the Enga of highland Papua New Guinea as well as social networks for risk reduction in the !Kung of the Kalahari Desert, points out another potential problem with Carriers logic: I dont know of anyone [in traditional societies] who fistfights; people wrestle, she explains, adding that if they really want to do someone in, people in such societies simply use weapons. If punching is uncommon in these societies, its reasonable to assume this type of combat wasnt a key factor in our evolution.

More broadly, if violence and warfare are not ubiquitous throughout traditional societies, this would suggest that these human behaviors are not innate, but rather arise from culture. Fry hasextensively examinedboth archaeological and contemporary evidence, and has documented over70 societies that dont make warat all, from the Martu of Australia, who have no words for feud or warfare, to the Semai of Malaysia, who simply flee into the forest when faced with conflict. He also argues that there is very little archaeological evidence for group conflicts in our distant past, suggesting war only became common as larger, sedentary civilizations emerged around 12,000 years agothe opposite of Pinkers conclusions.

Chimpanzees might just be ultra-violent outliers.

As for our primate cousins, according to primatologist Frans de Waal of Emory University, theirbehavior has been cherry-pickedto suit a more violent narrative for humanity. While chimp behavior may well shed light on human male tendencies for violence, de Waal points out that the other two of our three closest relatives, bonobos and gorillas, are less violent than us. In even the most peaceful human societies, of course, violence in one form or another is not totally unknown, and the same is true of these peaceful apes. Nevertheless, it is plausible that instead of descending from chimp-like ancestors, we come from a lineage of relatively peaceful, female-dominated apes, like bonobos. Chimpanzees might just be ultra-violent outliers.

That our evolutionary success is based largely on our ability to be violentthats just wrong, says biological anthropologist Agustn Fuentes,who is chair of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. The sum total of data we have from the genetics to the behavioral to the fossil to the archaeological suggests that is not the case.

Scholars and researchers on both sides of the debate want their work applied to achieve more peaceful societies, and most agree that humans are capable of both great acts of violence and great acts of kindness. Yet from Chagnon onward, there has been a palpable degree of tension between those who hold opposing viewpoints. In anopen letter to de Waalin 2005, University of Groningen anthropologist Johan van der Dennen complained of feeling shouted down by the peace and harmony mafia.

At issue is the fact that for some a biological explanation suggests that violence is unavoidable. If we accept that violence is inherent, says Fuentes, we start to accept unpleasant behavior as inevitable and indeed natural in ourselves and those around us. The old adage that violence begets violence is true, says AAA President Waterston. A society that adopts and is adapted to violence tends to reproduce it, locating and leveraging the resources to do so.

John Horgan, science journalist and author ofThe End of War, has been conductinginformal surveys with studentsfor years, and he reports that over 90 percent of respondents think we will never stop fighting wars. And when Adamsandothers conducted their own studies on student attitudes, they observed a worrying effect: There was anegative correlationbetween the belief that violence was innate and peace activism. Even among those students whowereactively campaigning for peace, 29 percent reported that they had previously been put off by a pessimistic view that humans are intrinsically violent. Adams predicts that the level of apathy would be higher among those who abstained from activism altogether: If you think that war is inevitable, why oppose it? he says.

Such fatalistic attitudes are particularly worrying when held by those in power: They can be used to justify military budgets, and not seek alternative solutions, argues de Waal. Even Nobel Peace Prizewinning former U.S. President Barack Obama seems to believe that violence is bred into humanity: War, in one form or another, appeared with the first man, he said in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. With Obamas entire tenure spent leading a nation at waralbeit war that he inherited from his predecessorHorganhas wonderedif the former presidents personal belief in the deep-roots theory of war might have prevented him from more actively seeking peace.

But Obama, like Hobbes and Pinker, has also argued that society is equipped to fight the supposed biological imperative for violence: We have increasingly created codes of law and philosophies to limit violent acts, thanks to our capacity for empathy and reason. InTheBetter Angels of Our Nature, Pinker elegantly charts what he sees as a decline in violence, from the frightening 15 percent of violent deaths in nonstate societies down to 3 percent of deaths attributed to war, genocide, and other human-made disasters in the 20th centurya period that includes two world wars.

Waterston, exasperated by the tired assumption that violence is rooted in human nature, explains that for her the question should simply be about what circumstances are required for there to be less violence. Yet those seeking biological explanations see themselves as getting to the core of the issue in order to answer this question. Carrier offers an analogy to alcoholism: If you have a predisposition to drinking excessively, you must recognize those tendencies, and the reasons behind them, in order to fight them. We want to prevent violence in the future, says Carrier, but were not going to get there if we keep making the same mistakes over and over again because we are in denial about who we are. Chimpanzee research, for example, demonstrates how balanced power between groups tends to limit violence. The same is clearly true of humans, Wrangham notes. Probing that simple formula, with all its complexities, seems to me a very worthwhile endeavor.

There may be disagreement about how to get there, but all involved are trying to attain the same end goal. An evolutionary analysis does not purport to condemn humans to violence, explains Wrangham. What it does achieve is a more precise understanding of the conditions that favor the highly unusual circumstance of peace.

This article is reproduced with permission fromwww.sapiens.org.The article wasfirst publishedon July 12, 2017.

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Nasty, Brutish and Short: Are Humans DNA-Wired to Kill? - Scientific American

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins recapped her 150 days in space during the second day of the International Space Station (ISS) R&D 2017 Conference.

Rubins, the first person to sequence DNA on the ISS by culturing beating heart cells, took part in the session on July 18 at the annual conference held in Washington D.C.

DNA sequencing identifies an organisms blueprintthe process used to determine the precise order of the four chemical building blocks in a single DNA strand. Scientists use it to advance research, including identifying the genes responsible for certain genetic diseases through the blueprints.

Rubins used a hand-held, USB-powered DNA sequencerthe MinIONto determine the DNA sequencing for a mouse, bacteria and a virus. The goal of the experiment was to show that DNA sequencing is possible in space, which could lead to the potential to enable the identification of microorganisms, monitor changes in microbes and humans in response to spaceflight, as well as aid in the detection of DNA-based life elsewhere in the universe.

Rubins investigated where human skin cells were induced to become stem cells, enabling them to differentiate into any type of cell. The research team forced stem cells to grow into human heart cells and cultured aboard the space station for one month.

During her time in space, Rubins gained a cult following and has been dubbed #AstroKate by internet commenters. Rubins earned a doctorate in cancer biology from Stanford University and was selected in 2009 for the 20th NASA astronaut class after she helped develop the first smallpox infection model for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Joining Rubins for the Revolutionizing Science from Ground to Orbit session was Dr. Arun Sharma, from Harvard Medical School and Sarah Wallace, Ph.D., from NASA to discuss in a discussion on their ground-based experience with respect to space-based research design decisions, preparations and expectations.

Continued here:
'AstroKate,' the First to Perform DNA Sequencing in Space, Speaks at ISS Conference - R & D Magazine

People and pooches may have struck up a lasting friendship after just one try, a new genetic study suggests.

New data from ancient dogs indicates that dogs became distinct from wolves between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago, researchers report July 18 in Nature Communications. Dogs then formed genetically distinct eastern and western groups 17,000 to 24,000 years ago, the researchers calculate. That timing and other genetic data point to dogs being domesticated just once.

That idea contrasts with a hypothesis put forward last year that dogs were domesticated separately in Europe and East Asia, with the Asian dogs eventually replacing the European mutts (SN: 7/9/16, p. 15).

Scientists agree that dogs stem from wolves, but where, when and how many times dogs were domesticated passing down tameness and other traits over generations has been rethought many times in the last few years (SN: 7/8/17, p. 20).

The new study puts dog origins into one time and place again. Thats really important, says Peter Savolainen, an evolutionary geneticist at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm who was not involved in either study. These new data indicate theres a single origin, and it wasnt in Europe, says Savolainen, a proponent of an East Asian origin of dogs.

The new study examined the complete genetic blueprints, or genome, from a 7,000-year-old dog from Herxheim in Germany, and a 4,700-year-old dog from Cherry Tree Cave (also known as Kirshbaumhle) in Germany. The scientists also analyzed DNA data from a 4,800-year-old dog from Newgrange, Ireland, that had been described in the previous study positing two domestication events.

Story continues after image

A claim of multiple domestications for dogs requires extraordinary evidence, says study coauthor Krishna Veeramah, an evolutionary geneticist at Stony Brook University in New York. But complete genomes of the ancient dogs suggest a simpler story. We can explain all of our data just using one domestication event, Veeramah says.

Although Veeramah and colleagues see a split between eastern and western dogs, that split probably happened after domestication took place. Modern European dogs still share heritage with Stone Age canines on the continent, hinting that all the pups came from a common source rather than separately domesticated Asian dogs replacing their European counterparts.

These new data dont completely rule out multiple domestications (the single event is just the simpler explanation), nor do they indicate where humans and canines became BFFs, Veeramah says. A family tree constructed from the DNA data puts todays Southeast Asian breeds on the earliest branch, implying an origin in Asia. But a dog breeds present-day location may not reflect where dogs were actually domesticated more than 20,000 years ago, Veeramah says.

The team that proposed double domestication is not convinced of a single origin. The new study is based on genetic data alone and doesnt take archaeological evidence into account, says Greger Larson, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Oxford.

Theres no smoking gun here, and theres no direct contradiction, says Larson. Our hypothesis of a dual origin remains a possibility, as does a single origin. Researchers wont know for sure until theyve analyzed older dogs from multiple places.

The ancient doggy data also challenge a recently proposed idea that dogs were domesticated when early mongrels developed the ability to digest starch better than wolves could (SN Online: 1/23/13), allowing them to eat grains in early farmers trash heaps. A previous study found that todays dogs have many copies of the AMY2B gene, which produces an enzyme that helps break down starch, while wolves have only two copies.

The new study finds that both ancient German dogs had two copies of AMY2B, while the Newgrange dog had three. Since those dogs lived thousands of years after domestication, the findings suggest the first domesticated dogs were no better equipped to digest starch than wolves were. But the ancient dogs do have other genetic variants that made it possible for the amylase gene to be copied later, Veeramah says. Exactly when that happened isnt clear.

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Dog domestication happened just once, ancient DNA study suggests - Science News Magazine

Viewers lost their minds when Kirk Frost didnt come clean with the results of the DNA test on the finale reunion episode of L&HH! Now our insider has the EXCLUSIVE details on Jasmine Washingtons fiery response!

Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta fans might be scattered far and wide but we can all agree on one thing: Kirk Frost, 48, flat blew it on the final reunion episode! After an entire season of hyping the paternity test and waiting to discover if, in fact, he is the father of Jasmine Washingtons sonwe got a big fat nothing! Nothing! The episode ended and fans were ready to revolt! But heres the thing: viewers arent the only ones up in arms over the disappointing finale! Jasmine herself is seething over Kirks decision and, thanks to a source, weve got her side of the story! Take a peek at pics of the stunning reality star here!

Jasmine is bitter and hurt that she did not get redemption with the release of the DNA tests during the LHH reunion special, an insider shared with HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. She is waiting like the rest of the world even though she knows Kirk is the father, she just wants the truth to come out. She needs child support and the court has ordered a DNA test. If the network producers cant get Kirk to take responsibility, Jasmine is hoping the good courts of Georgia can. Yes, girl!

HollywoodLifers, are you anxiously awaiting the DNA test results? Let us know below!

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Didn't Reveal DNA Results On 'L&HH'Reunion - Hollywood Life

July 18, 2017 Credit: Wiley

Traces of biomolecules such as DNA can be detected with a new "dynamic" technique based on the observation of association and dissociation events of gold nanoparticles. If the desired DNA sequence is present, it can reversibly bind two nanoparticles together. This can be detected in real time through a change in light scattering. As reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie, this method differentiates true signals from noise and can detect deviations of individual bases.

Detecting and quantifying biomolecules at extremely small concentrations is increasingly important for applications such as early and precise diagnosis, monitoring cancer treatment, forensic investigations, and highly sensitive tests for biological weapons. The current method of choice is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which is based on the enzymatic replication of DNA. The disadvantage of this method is the false positives that may result from the tiniest amounts of impurity.

Scientists working with Jwa-Min Nam at Seoul National University (South Korea) have now developed a new method for detecting extremely small amounts of DNAwithout replication, signal amplification, or false positive results. Their method is based on the detection of individual binding events. Because the binding partners continuously separate and then bind again, the number of detectable results is multiplied and unspecific signals are minimized. This associating and dissociating nanodimer analysis (ADNA) is based on the measurement of light scattering by gold nanoparticles using dark-field microscopy.

The sample and two types of gold nanoparticles are placed onto a glass slide coated in a lipid double layer. One type of nanoparticle has binding sites on the surface that anchor to the lipid layer. The other type reversibly binds to the lipid layer, remaining mobile. Both nanoparticles have short single-stranded DNA segments that are complementary to two different sequences in the target DNA so that they can bind it. When a mobile nanoparticle comes very close to an immobilized one, the target DNA can bind them into a dimer.

When two nanoparticles are bound, their vibrations (plasmons) are coupled. This changes the intensity and color of scattered light, which can be detected in real time. The dynamic analysis of dimers that dissociated during observation is the key to the clear differentiation between the presence and absence of the target DNA. The kinetics of the dissociation are significantly different for DNA that is a perfect match and DNA with a single altered base.

Even in the presence of other DNA, such as in a sample of human blood serum, it was possible to selectively detect and reliably quantify ultra-low concentrations of the target DNA. Under the test conditions used, the detection limit was about 46 DNA copies.

Explore further: Nanoparticles offer insights into interactions between single-stranded DNA and their binding proteins

More information: Keunsuk Kim et al. Associating and Dissociating Nanodimer Analysis for Quantifying Ultrasmall Amounts of DNA, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2017). DOI: 10.1002/anie.201705330

Double-stranded DNA must disentangle itself into single strands during replication or repair to allow functional molecules to bind and perform their various operations. Cellular proteins specifically bind to single-stranded ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mention of arsenic poisoning usually brings to mind underhanded murder. However, the danger of arsenic poisoning from contaminated drinking water is far greater. Low concentrations of arsenic are found in ...

The INM Leibniz Institute for New Materials has joined forces with a manufacturer of analytical equipment to reduce particles losses and avoid false negatives.

Five years of hard work and a little "cosmic luck" led Rice University researchers to a new method to obtain structural details on molecules in biomembranes.

Medical diagnostics is searching for substances capable of documenting early on whether a serious disease is developing or what its course will be. In many cases, the treacherous molecules are present only in trace amounts ...

Infectious diseases such as malaria and syphilis can be diagnosed rapidly and reliably in the field by using a simple test developed by Canadian scientists. The test is based on the use of DNAzymes and gold nanoparticles. ...

Material scientists and physicists from Heidelberg University (Germany) and the University of St Andrews (Scotland) have demonstrated electrical generation of hybrid light-matter particles, so-called exciton-polaritons, by ...

Traces of biomolecules such as DNA can be detected with a new "dynamic" technique based on the observation of association and dissociation events of gold nanoparticles. If the desired DNA sequence is present, it can reversibly ...

An exotic interaction between light and metal can be harnessed to make chemical reactions more sustainable, but the physics behind it has been widely debated in the field.

A hypoallergenic electronic sensor can be worn on the skin continuously for a week without discomfort, and is so light and thin that users forget they even have it on, says a Japanese group of scientists. The elastic electrode ...

A Rice University professor's method to "upconvert" light could make solar cells more efficient and disease-targeting nanoparticles more effective.

Scientists from the Swiss Nanoscience Institute and the University of Basel have succeeded in coupling an extremely small quantum dot with 1,000 times larger trumpet-shaped nanowire. The movement of the nanowire can be detected ...

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Link:
Ultrasensitive DNA quantification by light scattering - Phys.Org

Another day, another Twitter rant! Part two of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta's reunion special aired last night and fans were finally ready to get some answers. The only problem? Well, nothing was answered. During last week's first installment, Kirk Frost, 48, shockingly confessed the details of his affair with Jasmine Washington, 27, while his wife Rasheeda, 35, listened.

Unfortunately, fans waited 17 episodes for an answer that would never come and they're PISSED. "VH1 made us wait 17 episodes to not get Kirk's DNA test?!?!" one Twitter user ranted. "Love & Hip Hop season finale just pissed me TF off. They need to stop playing and release Kirk Frost DNA test result," another chimed in. "Can we please get Maury to give Kirk Frost a DNA test and find Rasheeda a backbone and a new storyline?" a third added.

MORE: Karen "KK" King Stirs up a Whole Mess of Drama With Tommie Lee on the 'Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta' Reunion!

Kirk's mistress didn't participate in either part of the reunion, but while last week's episode aired, she took to Instagram to vent in posts that have since been deleted. She said, "Only posting this [because] this man continues to drag my name through the mud and LIE about EVERYTHING. He's gone too far with the lies & defamation.. so I will go just as far with the truth. If I'm a scammer so are you [Kirk]. For you slow pokes, my son was born in 2016. So yes the messages are from then and before." Yikes!

Take a look below at the most hilarious and straight-up ruthless posts from Twitter!

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Waiting for part 2 of the reunion . Hoping to find out the DNA results like ... #LHHATL #LHHATLREUNION pic.twitter.com/KAV12yK6os

Ok Mona it's now or never . Release the DNA results. And I don't want to wait for part 16 either . #LHHATL #LHHATLReunion pic.twitter.com/azqPPmgM1z

WAIT. Sooo they focused the entire season on Kirk's infidelity and we STILL don't know if the child is his!! I'm done. #LHHATLReunion pic.twitter.com/t0Ln5bAnAK

So they really not going to do the Kirk's DNA #LHHATLReunion pic.twitter.com/MlM1ztc4xG

Joseline Hernandez Leaves 'Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta' Amid Feud With Mona Scott-Young

Tommie Lee Fired From 'Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta' Find out Why She Was "Let Go" (REPORT)

'Love & Hip Hop' Star Kirk Frost Blames His Wife Rasheeda for His Latest Cheating Scandal

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Kirk Frost Refuses to Reveal His DNA Test Results and Fans Are Salty AF - In Touch Weekly

Family tales and photos reveal only part of our ancestral story. A clearer picture of our past and even our future lies deeper - in our genes. That's why WBIR Marketing Director Kara McFarland turned to science to fill in some blanks.

Robin Wilhoit, WBIR 8:10 PM. EDT July 17, 2017

WBIR Marketing Director Kara McFarland was adopted as an infant. She used the genetic testing kit23andMe" to learn more about her biological familys history. (Photo: WBIR)

Family tales and photos reveal only part of our ancestral story. A clearer picture of our past and even our future lies deeper in our genes. Thats why WBIR Marketing Director Kara McFarland turned to science to fill in some blanks.

Kara always knew she was adopted as a newborn. She never gave it a second thought that she looked nothing like her dark haired, olive skinned adoptive parents. But as she grew, so did her curiosity.

I went on a journey of discovery on my own. I didnt tell them, said Kara. "I was able to find in my basement the adoption file and I found some photos. One photo, I just couldnt believe it. It was like looking at my reflection.

A baby photo of Kara and her adoptive parents. Photo courtesy Kara McFarland. (Photo: WBIR)

Karas curiosity eventually turned into questions about her background and her health based on her biological familys history. Theyre questions that can now be answered with at-home genetic testing kits you can buy online. A simple saliva sample can reveal what part of the world you come from, who you are related to and potential health risks.

Kara used the genetic testing kit 23andMe. She spit into a small tube, answered some questions online, sealed up the kit and sent it off in the mail.

Four weeks later Karas genetic findings were in her computer inbox. It revealed she is 96.8% Northwestern European, among others.

There is British, Irish, a little French and German. It says 1% Scandinavian. A lot of people ask me if Im Scandinavian but I dont know anything about that. Im excited to learn," she said.

Kara's genetic findings from her 23andMe test. (Photo: WBIR)

The test also gives Kara heads up on variants in her genes that put her at risks of certain health conditions. It turns out, she has a slightly increased risk of developing late onset Alzheimers Disease.

The only thing you can do is do your research and practice a healthy lifestyle, said Kara.

Now armed with information, Kara has a glimpse into her future and a clearer picture of her past.

I still identify as Yugoslavian and American Indian. Thats what I was raised to know. Now I can research and learn a little bit more about those areas and feel a connection to a people I havent felt a connection to," she said.

Tuesday on 10News at 6, an expert will share how these test kits work and the accuracy of the findings.

2017 WBIR.COM

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Searching for an answer in DNA - WBIR-TV